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Home → Reviews → Camera Gear Accessories

Jobu Design Black Widow Jr Review

By Nasim Mansurov 13 Comments
Last Updated On September 24, 2018

This is a review of the Black Widow Jr.3 (BWG-JR3) Gimbal head by Jobu Design. A good, reliable and flexible tripod head is a must when using long telephoto lenses. While there are many different tripod heads and mounts out there, the “Gimbal” type head is preferred, because it provides excellent stability and balance with full flexibility to rotate the lens and camera with ease. Any other tripod head type, including ball-head requires constant loosening and tightening when tracking moving subjects and if not properly tightened, could potentially go off balance and damage the equipment. There is no such threat with a gimbal-type head once everything is properly balanced and the camera with a lens could rotate in all directions without the need to adjust anything.

Jobu Design Black Widow Jr3

Table of Contents

  • Jobu Design Black Widow Jr Specifications
  • Product Use and Performance
  • Summary
  • Pricing and Where to Buy

1) Jobu Design Black Widow Jr Specifications

  1. Maximum Load: Recommended Under 10 lb (4.53 kg) total
  2. Maximum Capacity: Up to 15 lb (6.80 kg) for occasional use
  3. Tripod Mount: 3/8″-16
  4. Weight: 1.4 lb (725 g)
  5. Dimensions: 9 x 8″ (22.86 x 20.32cm)

2) Product Use and Performance

In short, if you shoot with any long telephoto lens, you want to use a gimbal head, especially with large and heavy 400mm, 500mm and 600mm prime lenses. I have been a fan of Wimberley WH-200 gimbal head for a while now, which is sort of a gold standard among many wildlife photographers, but I always wanted to see how other alternatives perform in comparison.

As of now, there is a good selection of gimbal heads available from such manufacturers as Kirk, Manfrotto, Acratech, Jobu Design, Induro, Custom Brackets, RRS and Wimberley and you can get either a lightweight half-gimbal version that attaches to a ball-head, or you can get a full gimbal head that directly attaches to the tripod mount.

Jobu Design Black Widow Jr3 Mounted
NIKON D3S + 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 70mm, ISO 800, 1/50, f/8.0

I had an opportunity to play with the Black Widow Jr while testing the Nikon 400mm f/2.8G VR and immediately fell in love with it. My biggest surprise was its weight – while most heavy duty full size gimbal heads weigh roughly 3 pounds, the Black Widow Jr is less than half the weight at only 1.4 pounds. Size-wise, it is also about twice smaller and much more compact. This is great news for those of us that travel a lot and need to stay as compact and lightweight as possible.

Looking at the small size of the Black Widow Jr, I wondered how well it handled long and heavy lenses. The Nikon 300mm f/2.8G VR II was my first lens to try and it worked very well on it. Action was smooth and the setup was very stable. The second lens to try was my much heavier and bulkier Nikon 200-400mm f/4G VR. Surprisingly, it also coupled pretty well with the Black Widow Jr, although it felt a little too big for a small head like this. I know some 200-400mm owners use the Black Widow Jr for their work and they really like it. My last test was to see how well the Nikon 500mm f/4 would work on it. As Jobu Design states on their website, you can mount a 500mm f/4 lens on the Black Widow Jr, but it is recommended to use the larger Black Widow BWG-Pro that can handle much more weight and provide better stability. I agree with them – while the tilting and panning movement remained smooth, my images were not as sharp, especially when I used the 500mm with the TC-14E II teleconverter. When shooting at such long focal lengths, stability can become an issue and the Black Widow Jr is simply not suited for that. As for the Nikon 400mm f/2.8G VR II, I would not mount it on the Black Widow Jr.3, although as you can see below, I did for illustration purposes.

Here is how the setup looks from the side, with the 400mm f/2.8G VR II attached without a camera body:

Jobu Design Black Widow Jr3 with 400mm Straight
NIKON D3S + 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 70mm, ISO 800, 1/50, f/8.0

And here is a view from behind with the lens pointing up:

Jobu Design Black Widow Jr3 with 400mm Up
NIKON D3S + 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 42mm, ISO 800, 1/50, f/8.0

Setting up and operating the Black Widow Jr.3 is a breeze. Once it is mounted on the tripod, you attach your lens to the quick-release Arca-Swiss mount (you will need to replace the standard lens foot with an Arca-Swiss type), slightly loosen the top rubber knob and then move it forward or backward until the lens and camera balance. When everything is balanced well, you are good to go. Tilting is controlled by the top knob, while panning is controlled by the bottom knob. The swing arm can be adjusted in three different positions.

3) Summary

Overall, the Jobu Design Black Widow Jr.3 is an excellent gimbal head for lenses lighter than 500mm f/4. At $350 retail value, it is almost twice cheaper than its bigger brother Black Widow Pro and does not require a ball-head like Wimberley Sidekick. Lenses also naturally sit on top of the mount instead of the side, which provides better stability and less chances for accidents, in my opinion.

4) Pricing and Where to Buy

The Jobu Design Black Widow Jr is priced at $329 and is available at B&H Photo Video.

Jobu Design Black Widow Jr
  • Build Quality
  • Handling
  • Value
  • Size and Weight
  • Packaging and Manual

Photography Life Overall Rating

4.5

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Filed Under: Camera Gear Accessories Tagged With: Gimbal, Product Reviews, Tripod Heads, Tripods

About Nasim Mansurov

Nasim Mansurov is the author and founder of Photography Life, based out of Denver, Colorado. He is recognized as one of the leading educators in the photography industry, conducting workshops, producing educational videos and frequently writing content for Photography Life. You can follow him on Instagram and Facebook. Read more about Nasim here.

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Jim Radford
Jim Radford
August 17, 2013 10:03 pm

I own your Junior 3 … Wondering if it could deal effectively with the Sigma 500mm f4.5 … Which is a bit lighter at 6.8 lbs and shorter than comparables … But well over the 70-200mm

0
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Frank Mooring
Frank Mooring
January 20, 2012 7:14 pm

Nasim,
Recently found your website and am absolutely loving it. Looking for some advice. I currently have a D200 and trying to hold out for a D400 as my next body upgrade(would love your advice on this as well). My wife and I have recently purchased a cabin in the Yellowstone area and I am getting back into wildlife/nature photography after a 35 year hiatus. I am strongly considering a Nikon 300mm F2.8 with teleconvertors as my primary lens and am looking for advice on the best rig to support this combination (D400 and 300mm 2.8) in this setting (monopod vs tripod) and associated heads. Would love to hear anything you can offer. Thanks,
Frank

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Abdul Ahmed
Abdul Ahmed
November 12, 2011 12:43 am

Hi Nasim,

I apologize for misspelling your name in my earlier post..

Need your advice..I have recently bought a 300 mm f/4 and would like to know if i can use this in combination with the Black Widow Jr.3 (would like to buy) and a Manfrotto 055XPROB (already own one) Tripod? Will this work well?

Ahmed

0
Reply
Nasim Mansurov
Nasim Mansurov
Author
Reply to  Abdul Ahmed
November 13, 2011 9:49 pm

Abdul, yes, it will work, but you will need to replace the lens collar on the 300mm f/4 lens with this one.

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Reply
Abdul Ahmed
Abdul Ahmed
Reply to  Nasim Mansurov
November 14, 2011 1:49 am

Thanks for the response Nasim..

Do I need to buy an additional plate?

The website says this :
“Important Notice! Use of this lens collar with Arca flip lock mounts, while possible, will not yield optimal performance and is not recommended. Use with a Kirk quick release or mount an additional Arca plate to the bottom of the collar for Arca mounts”

I am little confused, because the Kirk website says that it has a built in Arca style base plate..

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Reply
Nasim Mansurov
Nasim Mansurov
Author
Reply to  Abdul Ahmed
November 14, 2011 2:00 am

No, the collar is already made for the arca-swiss mount, so you don’t need to buy anything else.

0
Reply
Abdul Ahmed
Abdul Ahmed
Reply to  Nasim Mansurov
November 14, 2011 3:39 am

Thanks a ton! :)

0
Reply
Abdul Ahmed
Abdul Ahmed
November 11, 2011 4:54 am

Hi Naseem,

Need your advice..I have recently bought a 300 mm f/4 and would like to know if i can use this in combination with the Black Widow Jr.3 (would like to buy) and a Manfrotto 055PROB (already own one) Tripod? Will this work well?

Ahmed

0
Reply
Dennis
Dennis
October 24, 2011 12:17 am

Hi Nasim,

I very much agree with you on ball-head which requires constant loosening and tightening. Sometimes I just missed my shots because of this. I am looking for gimbal type, but my longest len is only 70-200 vrii. Can it be used to mount camera body? Or only for long tele lens?

Dennis

0
Reply
Nasim Mansurov
Nasim Mansurov
Author
Reply to  Dennis
October 26, 2011 12:45 am

Dennis, this particular gimbal will work perfectly with your 70-200mm f/2.8 VR II. Yes, you can mount cameras on some gimbal heads (like the one from RRS), but I would not recommend it. Gimbal heads are meant to be used with lenses only.

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Reply
Dennis
Dennis
Reply to  Nasim Mansurov
October 30, 2011 7:57 am

Thanks for sharing your opinion. I guess I will stick with gimbal heads and get use to it.

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Reply
Pasquier
Pasquier
October 22, 2011 6:32 pm

Wow, I’m surprised the small Jobu will hold the massive 400mm f2.8!
It is a lovely well designed tool at a great price…. although the big Wimberley still reigns supreme.
In my experience the small Jobu is a lot more stable than the Sidekick….. but I didn’t try it with a RRS etc ballhead.

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Nasim Mansurov
Nasim Mansurov
Author
Reply to  Pasquier
October 26, 2011 2:05 am

Pasquier, I mounted the 400mm on the Jobu for illustration purposes only :) I would not trust to keep the 400mm on it, since it feels too heavy for it. It can probably handle it, but then it is kind of dangerous…

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Reply

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